I'm proud to say that I didn't stay up late to watch.
Instead, I scrapbooked, crocheted, beaded, painted, learned sitar, tried on wigs, made origami spiders, knitted a sock, caught up on celebrity news, and made a paper mache support for my looming goat yoga class. The Yankees? Ha! Never entered my mind. Even now... doing this hobby called "blogging"... who are they, anyway?
Turns out, I was wise. Thirteen innings, not one fuckin' run, and a grab-bag of mistakes that belonged on ESPN's competing broadcasts of the Little League World Series. I won't belabor this. Life is too short.
Meanwhile...
1. I feel sad for Chris Sale, who broke his - hahahaha, excuse me - wrist falling off a stationery bike and is now - hahahaha- out for the season for his second time. Didn't much matter. Boston is dead, everybody knows it, and oh boy, will they ever be wicked ornery this weekend! I don't want to mock Sale, though - hahahahaha - he hates us, and Boston sure would laugh were it Cole. I will resist the urge to call him "Boston's Ellsbury" or "Setback Sale." I imagine Mayhem in that Allstate ad, soring off the Peloton, and I stifle a smile. At least it was his non-pitching wrist. He'll be back next year, at age 34.
2. Getting back to Miggy - he went one for five with three strikeouts and four runners stranded. Lame. It's nice to see him get another shot, and let's hope this window offers him - say - 100 at bats to show his pluck. But we should steel ourselves for the possibility that his incredible, Dimaggioian rookie year was his peak, that like so many others before him, all that potential will be stranded like last night's runners on base.
3. Without Anthony Rizzo at 1B, this Yankee lineup is an Onion satire. The third, fourth and fifth batters last night were Benintendi, Donaldson and Gleyber, and I'm sorry, but that's a "Go into the kitchen and make a sandwich" half-inning. To think that we've fallen so far from Rizzo, Stanton and Carpenter: It's a practical joke, right? Where's Allen Funt? Where's the hidden camera?
3. After we're done with Boston this weekend, it's the Rays, BJs and Mets for nine games, all at home, and by then, college pro football will be going, and the AL East should be effectively decided. Obviously, there is plenty of time for the Yankees to implode, but if we can get to September, the month simply isn't long enough to blow a 10-game lead. It's time to stop fretting over the home field advantage against Houston - somebody else will have to beat the Astros, because we can't - and let's be content with, say, a .500 pace the rest of the way. All we have to do is avoid a losing streak. Win today, and we are 3-4 on the road trip thus far. That's good enough to maintain our course.
Excuse me, but it's time for my goat yoga. Cute little bastards.
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22 comments:
Sleepless in Seattle
Time to Skedattle
Avoided the Broom
But still deserve the Paddle
Run instead of Waddle
Lumbering like Cattle
Waaaaaaaaa! *
*Let's go Mr Nasty
Duque, you are a smart man.
How can you mention Andujar and not bring up his idiotic baserunning in the 11th?
Andujar hasn't been able to hit MLB pitching with authority in four years now, can't run, and can't field. He's not a major leaguer. Maybe if he could do it all over again with another organization he could be one. But not here.
"Fun" fact: Last night was the first time since 1914 that Yankee pitchers threw 12+ innings while allowing 0 ER and the team lost.
Literally hasn't happened in more than 100 years.
If you were stupid enough to stay up late to watch this dumpster fire at least you got to see something historic.
I went to be "early," too. And SO glad I did.
We'll see with Miggy. But no, that was NOT encouraging.
The hidden disaster, though?
Falafel.
We don't say much about the guy because we don't expect much. He plays a decent shortstop, and hits single—some of them even clutch. And that's all we expect and all we should expect.
But there are, of course, half-a-dozen other guys out there we could and should have got to put at short. If Carlos Correa or Corey Seagar is out there, there is a whole other out look on the season—and a whole other power bat in the lineup.
Despite Donaldson's little outburst the other night—and that's ALL it looks like, another isolated game, against a pitcher the Yanks had seen recently—that deal with Minnesota was a disaster.
Wow, duque, that is so optimistic of you to think the Yankees - these Yankees - can play 500 ball the rest of the way.
The Yankees are 10-17 in the last calendar month and only one AL team is within 10 games of our record.
The American League is so weak this year.
I can't believe we're sending six of these bumbling teams to the playoffs.
Once again Cashman plays a man (Rizzo) short because of injury. Seems that we could've used another bench player in a 13 inning affair. Torrens, a former Yankee minor leaguer, ended the game with a pinch hit single. Think we could've used something like that in this game?
@ZacharyA "Andujar hasn't been able to hit MLB pitching with authority in four years now, can't run, and can't field. He's not a major leaguer. "
Well, ZA, I do agree that last night was not exactly Andujar's finest hour, but let's not get too carried away. It is a fact that he got one of our three measly hits last night. Take him out, and we have two measly hits. (Shutout on two hits, sound familiar? Yeah, that just happened last Saturday, without Andujar in the lineup.)
Anyway, Andujar hasn't been given much of a chance to hit major league pitching in the last four years, so I can't see how we can hold that against him. Did the Yankee braintrust not give Joey Gallo 150 games to come out of his coma? I think you can say Andujar is done if you give him at least 'til the end of the year to get it going. But not 'til then.
I do remember a "spring training" game, maybe it was 2020 covid year, and the Yankees were playing an intrasquad game. Gerrit Cole was pitching, and no one was hitting him. Andujar came up and crushed a home run the other way against Cole. And I thought, Miggy is back!
I still think Andujar is one of the most talented hitters in the entire Yankee organization. He's one of those rare guys who are "pure hitters". A guy who can even hit good pitching. Unless he's lost it. And I don't think he's lost it.
Hammer,
I like Andujar too. I wish things had worked out differently. But 2018 was a very long time ago.
I don't see much evidence that indicates Andujar is a major-leaguer anymore.
He already has two strikes against him: can't field and can't run.
So to stick in the majors he needs to *really* hit. And I just don't see it.
Yeah, he had a weak blooper fall in for a hit yesterday, but that doesn't cut it in the majors.
The 2018 version of Miguel Andujar hit the ball to all fields extremely hard, either over the wall (27 HR) or into the gap (47 2B).
That guy just doesn't seem to exist anymore, sad as it is to say. Not even in the minors. He just doesn't drive the ball to all fields anymore. He'll get his occasional grounder that sneaks through or bloop single, but he's not the same bat.
I don't know whether his shoulder injury or the Yankees development process is to blame. (Probably both.)
And the Yankees aren't going to give him an extended run either, he's going back down whenever Stanton is ready. I wish they would just trade him to a team that would give him an everyday shot. Sad situation all around. Seems to happen a lot with young position player talent in this organization.
<-----raises hand.
In the minors this year:
0 of Andujar's 12 HR were hit to right field
1 of Andujar's 15 2B were hit to right field
He's just not the all-fields guy he used to be.
@Zach...I don't think anyone was interested in Miggy at the trade deadline...he'll be off the 40-man by next year...maybe it's the shoulder...IDK...he's a fielding and baserunning liability so he doesn't fit in to the window of a Yankee player with this year's set of analytics...
I saw the Braves called up their no. 1 prospect (a 21-year-old SS) straight from Double-A.
Would the Yankees dare?
No doubt Andujar hasn't shown the kind of power that he had in 2018. But I don't really care about the homers. I just want a guy who hits.
We had Joey Gallo here for 150 games, despite it being painfully obvious that he was not a major league hitter. And a career .200 hitter to boot. Waiting on those 40 homers a year. Never panned out.
There have been free agent left fielders who we could've signed a couple of years ago. For instance, Joc Pederson, coming off his WS win with the Dodgers. A lefty hitter. Could have had him for peanuts. Too bad we didn't go after him back then. Seemed like a good fit to me. Had we signed him, we probably never have the Gallo fiasco.
"...he's a fielding and baserunning liability..."
...two strikes against him: can't field and can't run...
This is hilarious. Like you've been seeing him in Scranton the last year or two.
Four different Yankees made terrible baserunning blunders last night and yet several of you sandblast Andujar.
And it's all based on what? Nothing. Nothing you've ever seen. Nothing you've even heard.
It's what's known as urban legend. Makes no difference if it's true or not. You're already convinced.
We can only hope that he gets enough at-bats to prove you right or wrong. Maybe he's another Gary or Joey, but for fukk's sake, give it a rest for 150 at-bats, cause right now he's all we have, until The Intern comes up with another has-been off the scrap heap.
Wait. Duque. You tried on wigs? Really?
As Monte Rock III said, "My wig is wet."
Disco Tex and his Sexolettes,I think it was.
Dick Allen finally a post that makes sense. Harder to find here than digging for coffee beans in elephant dung. You know I think The Babe had fat lips too causing people to say he had some african american in him. Does that make you sick too or do you let it slide cause he hit a few home runs? Wow just wow
This ongoing conspiracy talk that Yankee management has ruined by intent or incompetence the careers of both Florial AND Andujar is borderline crazy talk. The coaching staff watches these guys daily, for years now. Well, on the other hand they haven't developed a position player since Judge, before him, uh, umm, Jorge Posada. Yeah, that's the ticket... But we have a stable of statisticians to esplain it all.
BTW, Joc Pederson is exactly the kind of player that the Yankees shun. He's strictly a platoon player, but smashes the HELL out of the ball when platooned. Johnny Cueto, a pitcher that would have been a great number two pitcher for more than a decade. I.E, The Brain simply will not pickup second tiered players, it's gotta be the Penthouse or the outhouse....
Well, call me borderline crazy, but not for the reason you suggest Kevin.
The Intern has risen to his level of mediocrity and there he sits with Harold and Booone, all three with nowhere else to go.
And I think what’s happened is that they have been focused on being successful, which they clearly have, for 20+ years. You can’t really knock that kind of success. But I will.
In being successful, they’ve settled for a high level of mediocrity. What I mean is that they have created an environment where they are excelling at being good, and to drag out an old doggerel: good is the enemy of the best. Brian Cashman, Aaron Booooone and Hal Steinbrenner can congratulate themselves on a job well done, but none of them have any kind of killer instinct, and so they’ve created a team that is perfectly acceptable but incapable of being champions. In their own image and likeness. Yankees teams in years past, as someone recently pointed out, HATED losing. For this team it’s just another payday.
So, while they haven’t DELIBERATELY sabotaged Andujar and Florial, they’ve created an environment where that kind of loss - years lost really - in a players career and a long string of wild card losses becomes commonplace and perfectly acceptable. Management is doing its best, but it’s best will always come up short and we wind up looking like whining bitches because we haven’t won a ring in 13 years and a multitude of great players sign elsewhere while the Yankees enrich clean-cut players who can’t get us over the top - they don’t have that killer instinct. And while we’ll always be GOOD, as long as our current triumvirate has its way, they Yankees will never be great again.
DA, I think that we essentially agree, although clean-cut shouldn't be mistaken for "soft".
In the meantime, The Brain and Hal will Blame it on the Bossa-Nova!
Think about the things we heard about Rob Refsnyder - that Yankee management had their rockect scientist coaches try to change his swing to increase his "launch angle". Translation is that they turned his swing into an uppercut. What could do wrong with that? LOL
I have to think that they're doing that to everyone else in the minors. So no wonder that this organization never (or hardly ever) develops anyone.
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